use of breast self-examination in the women referred to sari health centers in 2001

background: early diagnosis of abnormal progressive labor and prevention of prolonged labor will cause decreased complications of mothers and fetuses. this was conduced to evaluate the alert line in who recommended program for diagnosis of abnormal labor. methods: subjects were 140 pregnant women. when their cervices were dilated about 3cm, the progress of delivery and condition of mothers and fetuses was controlled under guidance of program. t -test and ï‡ 2 were used to analyze the collected data. results: results indicated that cervical dilatation of 68.8% and 28.5% of cases was on or at the left side and at right side of alert line respectively and 2.9% on or at the right side of active line. the duration of the first stage of labor between two groups (with cervical dilatation on or at the left side of alert line and at the right side of alert line) was compared indicated that there was statistically significant difference between them. there was no significant difference between the mean of duration of latent phase and second stage of labor between the above groups. conclusion: results indicated that the alert line of program is an important criterion for diagnosis of abnormal labor.